The version that Steam uses is a direct Windows port of the "talkie" CD released in 1992, which adds voice acting and VGA graphics, but at a cost. They removed a significant portion of the dialogue to fit the (uncompressed) voice acting on the disc, reducing the story and detail. Furthermore they censored many, many scenes. http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=802320 has a pretty thorough list of censored and missing content. There isn't even almost any background music due to the dialogue taking all the space. As a result of all these, many scenes become rushed and lack the pacing or emotion they're supposed to have.

The voice acting isn't very good either, it's average at best in my opinion. The technical implementation is also somewhat bad due to being one of the first voice-acted games ever, as many lines are cut off abruptly at the end.

If you want to experience Loom, I recommend you to find the original EGA version or the FM-Towns version, neither of which are for sale sadly. The FM-Towns version has VGA graphics if you can't stand EGA, but the original looks really good in my opinion and has the best EGA graphics that I've ever seen. The best sound option in the EGA version is AdLib/SoundBlaster by default, but there is a patch[www.vogons.org] available that adds a MT-32 option (note however that you either need a real MT-32 or know how to emulate one).

There must be something wrong with this adaptation. The dialogues are off, and it horribly feels like something is missing from the gameplay itself. There's no indication of the notes on the distaff, and the drafts are almost impossible to play. I had to give up after a while, and this is seriously aggravating because I remember this game very fondly.I advise not to buy this version. It is horribly adapted.

Loom is unique. There is no game quite like it in the history of video games. As a professional singer and music teacher of many instruments, I still love the challenge of musical pattern recognition and recall of this wonderfully interesting game. I just saw the manual too and gosh, what a lovely throwback to the past when games really were works of art one could keep in the packaging and manuals that came with it. The music geek in me loves how one is supposed to use pencil to dictate the melodies one encounters in the game. It may be slow going for many of us (myself included) who are now so used to faster paced narratives in video games and other media; however, there is such a charm to it as well as some rather fiendish puzzles that had me cheating via online hint guides which incidentally one would have to pay and arm and a leg for with Lucas Arts hintlines, or so I hear. I give Loom 5 stars out of 5 for absolutely everything though I wish I could make bloody Bobbin Threadbare move far quicker- He is a tad snail like in his gait. Regardless, do play this gem while you have to chance. It is one of the best in the genre of adventure games and one of LucasArts finest offerings in this Musician's humble opinion :) Enjoy, Loom everyone. I am on my 4th playthrough and here's to many more :)

I really hate to say I don't reccomend this game, but as some other people have said, it's unfortunately the inferior version. I have played the EGA version all the way through and I think it's a pretty good game. I wouldn't rank it high among the LucasArts classics, but definitely something worth checking out. It's got a good plot and has an interesting take on the point and click genre; the only item here is a staff that can play music to perform a draft. You learn more and more of them as you play through the game, and use each draft to help get you through a puzzle. It's a fairly short game, but a good one.

Unfortunately, LucasArts decided to include the CD version of this game instead of the EGA or FM-Towns version. While it has updated 256-color VGA graphics and voice acting, all of the dialogue and music had to be stored as CD audio. The voice acting is sloppily done at times and the music doesn't play very often, killing a lot of immersion. They also cut down the dialogue considerably, leading to some rather confusing moments in the plot. It's really a shame; I'd love to reccomend this game, but I just can't. There is a site that offers the FM-Towns version though, if you have bought this version. Since that's generally considered the best version (it has all the positives of both PC editions and none of the negatives of either), I'd say go on ahead and buy it and follow their method to obtain it.

To put it simply, this version of the game is missing a lot of what the full package should have been. I haven't even played any other version prior to trying this one, and I was wondering why it had absolutely 0 music except for a couple of cutscenes. It seemed totally odd, most games even of this era always had music in the background. It seems this version removed a lot of content (text dialogue and music) to fit full voice acting audio on CD back in the day. That's no good, and for this reason I'd recommend looking elsewhere for the original version of this game unless you want to play it with absolute silence.

The storyline is pretty interesting, and gameplay is a bit different from normal point and clicks since instead of collecting items you memorize tunes to play that activate incantations, sort of like ocarina songs in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It's a cool mechanic, and what makes the game unique. I can see why it was well received in the past.

Regardless of the game's quality, the experience of this version is damaged due to removed dialogue and music to allow space for complete voice acting. Not really worth it, I'd say, look for the original version and play that.

As part of a Lucasarts bundle I had this adventure for a long time. When I was a child I read in those paper things called videogames magazines about many graphic adventures nd one of those was Loom. In these days I had a chance to play something so I decided to start Loom... And Finish it. The playtime over there is correct. But let's talk about it later...Loom is a graphic adventure directed by Brian Moriarty that sees You as Bobbin, a recluse and almost despised wizard apprentice. Bobbin is summoned by the elders of the village and for some odd reason they're all transformed into swans along with all the villagers, then they fly away. Now bobbin is the last of his village and can pick up his staff to go and search all the lost swans. VERY abridged version.The very innovative interface of the game requires the use of the aforementioned "distaff" which can play all seven notes ( you start with three, and unlock one by one the other ones as you proceed with the game). You can combine the notes into quartets to perform determined actions... Or better, spells (you're a wizard apprentice after all). How do you know the combinations? Along the game you'll see things happen which will emit notes. Simply repeat those notes to perform that action. Very creative indeed.Unfortunately the game is very short, even though the story was so promising, and some puzzles were quite interesting. And the worst thing is that the ending is kind of cut, or suspended. The story never really reach a conclusion, and if it does it's a really dark one (no spoilers, please).There are dialogues, but they're just a little more of the essential. Still I really appreciated the voice acting of the characters.

+++PROs+++

INTERFACE. This note interface was a very innovative system, it was a different and creative way to move into this adventure, it fitted perfectly in the game's story and setting and seems odd to me that no more games of the same kind were made.

STORY. I have to say that considering the lenght of the game there's a nice and interesting story behind all the game, And with a nice revelation at the end...

---CONs---

STORY. ...Too bad that the story is abruptly interrupted at the end. Without spoilers, The end is a complete suspension of the story, obviously leaving every situation as it is. There were plans for sequels which never saw light, there were fan sequels project which never saw light except for Forge, with one chapter out already, but I have no idead about the project actual situation.

DURATION. And this is the other bad side of the game. It took me 98 minutes to complete the game... Speechless... O.o

This game brings back childhood memories because of its memorable music, gameplay and puzzles. The game progression is very linear, so chance is that you will play it only once, but it is definitely worth it.

As other reviews have mentioned, there are serious problems with this version of LOOM. Just within the first 5 minutes of the game, in the scene with the elders, important dialog is missing and it's not clear exactly what happens. And the music is missing.

Bottom Line: I'm glad to have shared this with my kids, but sad to have tarnished my own childhood memories of it. If you haven't played it, you should; if you have, keep it safely glazed in nostalgia.

Years ago, I played the EGA version of Loom. It came in a box with a book-on-tape that described the setting and the game's backstory and a lovely and creative manual that included a host of "drafts" (or spells) that weren't included in the game but which expanded its universe. The game charmed me before I even installed it, and once I did, I was captivated by its gorgeous art, which used minimalism to make a 16-color palette more than ample, and its beautiful arrangement and rearrangement of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. The gameplay was simple and approachable for a kid, with no inventory to manage, no death, scant dialogue trees to wade through, but the puzzles were clever and made me feel clever when I solved them.

In the quarter century since first playing Loom, whatever flaws it had were forgotten and its many virtues grew, as is the case when you fall in love with something as a kid. When, in interviews, I was asked about Primordia's inspirations, Loom was always among the first I mentioned, and I would always recommend it for people as an entry point to point-and-click adventure games. So, when my four year old was looking for a game to play after we did Primordia together, I naturally got us Loom.

It has not aged well, the VGA "talky" version is somewhere between the restoration of the Great Wall and the "restoration" of the Ecce Homo painting in Borja, which is to say not very pleasant. Moreover, I had forgotten (or been unable to recognize) many flaws that exist even in the EGA version.

- The additional VGA colors conceal the artistic feats of the original, and in some instances simply look worse. This video makes the case well: https://youtu.be/bRJD0OrGulU

- The sampling of the voice over is extremely poor, and many audio clips are mistimed and oddly cut.

- Most of the music was removed from the game.

- Certain scenes are shortened (not so badly, in my opinion) and certain parts were bowdlerized.

But even setting aside the problems with the VGA version, the game itself is ludicrously short -- we beat it in under two hours, taking time for the four year old to take her stab at the puzzles. While the game feels open and experimental and somewhat exploratory on the initial island, it becomes increasingly linear, and the last act of the game is *entirely* linear, with every sequence an exact duplication (in gameplay terms) of the last:Walk left, enter portal, cast heal, enter portal, cast close, walk left...

Bobbin is not as endearing a character as I remembered, and neither is Hetchel -- the loss of the audiobook introduction to her, perhaps -- and Chaos is much less threatening. While some of the puzzles remain relatively clever, others are easy and sometimes tedious (in particular, the main puzzle in the blacksmith guild, which is worsened significantly by voice over freezing you out of interactions). I appreciate brevity in games more now than I used to, but every sequence feels two or three puzzles too short, and as a result none of the characters ever has anything more than a cameo, save for Rusty, whose ambiguous role in the story is as puzzling to me at 36 as it was at 11.

Despite these ample flaws, I still think Loom is a very special game. Its gentleness and the novelty of its spell-based puzzles are undiminished with time, and many of the scenes remain striking, even in VGA. There are many other games where you'll get more bang for your buck, but I think it is still a good entry point to the genre, and an important piece of adventure game history, one that shouldn't be forgotten.